Much has been made in recent months of British MPs who are standing down at the next general election, anticipated to be held later in 2024.

The three main reasons for this are constituency boundary changes, the surprise at some 2019 winners at being elected and the age of some serving MPs, particularly among the Conservatives.

Objectively speaking, it is hardly astounding news, yet the media have made much of it.

On Sunday, March 17, 2024, The Guardian published interviews with a few of the outgoing MPs, including the Mother of the House — longest serving female MP — Labour’s Harriet Harman, a recent widow after the death of her husband, Jack Dromey MP. She has been an MP since 1982 (emphases mine):

Why is she going now? Wouldn’t she have liked to see in a new Labour government? She shakes her head. “I would have gone earlier, but the party was in such bad shape under [former Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn. I felt the ship was rocking.” On election night, she will still be up until dawn, touring the TV studios as a commentator. But beyond that, she cannot quite see. There is the Fawcett Society, which she chairs (the group campaigns for women’s equality). And perhaps, too, there is work to be done on widowhood. Harman’s husband, Jack Dromey, also an MP, died unexpectedly in 2022 – “his office was right there, next door,” she says – and this has brought her to think about women who find themselves in the same situation. She is 73, which is no age at all these days. “There used to be a cultural norm about widowhood, which was that it’s a very sad and terrible thing; that the good part of your life is over. But my mum lived for 30 years after my dad died. You can’t say that a third of your life is going down the drain. We need a feminist take on widowhood. This is the next chapter of our lives, and we’re going to do it very differently.”

Then there are MPs who have been affected by mental health problems. Interestingly, Sir Charles Walker and William Wragg are Conservatives.

Walker, who has been an MP since 2005, has made some thought-provoking contributions in recent years, including on the pandemic:

Walker chairs the committee that drew up Smoothing the cliff edge, and he tells me that in this parliament, outplacement services are finally to be introduced: MPs will get help with such things as their CV. In the next parliament, vocational accredited training will be available. “People should be thinking about their last day in parliament on their first day,” he says. “Because it really is very transitory” …

When Charles Walker found himself getting crotchety with his constituents, he took it as an early sign that his time in parliament might be coming to an end: “My stepfather was an MP, and he said that once you start getting short-tempered, it’s time to go.” In 2019, he was at a political event – admittedly, this was not in his constituency – and it struck him as “one of the most unpleasant evenings” he’d ever had. “They thought they could be as rude as they liked,” he says. “So I basically told them what I thought of them: find yourself a new guest speaker, I said, because I’m going home. I called my wife from a service station. ‘I can’t do this any more,’ I said. She was the one who pointed out that I would have to do it for another five years because my name was on the ballot paper, and the nominations had closed two weeks earlier.”

Walker loves the House of Commons. He has never been a yes man, intent on clambering the greasy pole: on his first day in parliament in 2005, he got into a “terrible row” with his fellow Tory MPs when he said that they had to give up their outside jobs, and focus on the task in hand. He had no ministerial ambitions; he wanted only to be a good parliamentarian. “And I have been.” He is the fourth longest-serving select committee chair in the House, a former vice-chair of the 1922 Committee, and he has often amended legislation. In this sense, he has no regrets. But there is, he thinks, a problem. “I’m going to say something very controversial, which is that we’re far too close to our constituents. MPs’ offices are nearly all now staffed by five caseworkers, who just plough through the inbox, solving people’s problems. That’s a very noble thing to do, but ultimately, it’s not the role of a member of parliament. We’re here to legislate. I know it sounds like heresy, but we have to put some distance between ourselves and them. Most constituents are self-sufficient. So you end up working for about 1,000 people.” Walker believes passionately that more homes need to be built. Conservative MPs, however, are stymied by their constituencies if they talk about the green belt. “The Tory party has had numerous housing bills, but when it comes to the crunch, we find ourselves campaigning against them.”

His low point in the almost two decades he has been here was, without question, the period of the pandemic. Walker suffers from OCD. “I would happily have had the vaccination up my nose, or on a brioche… But I am needle phobic. It was absolutely awful when we started getting aggressive with those who hadn’t had a vaccination. I just hated it. The lack of empathy. The lack of humanity. All these nice middle-class people with their gardens lecturing others. I thought that was obnoxious.” But he thinks he began to “fall out of love with parliament” in the period after Brexit (he was a Brexiter, though he is much more agonised now about how it all played out). “I remember in a meeting of the 1922 Committee Theresa May being reduced to tears by the brutality of some colleagues around that table. If you were a shrink, you’d say that’s when I really started thinking I’d had enough.”

Some other complaints and observations. Boris was “chaos”, though he had “the Kryptonite of political stardust… and Truss was just a disaster. I mean, it really was, wasn’t it?” However, the media, with its obsession with gotchas, must also take some of the blame for the low quality of political debate: “The biggest decision any presenter of the Today programme has ever had to make is: what do I ask next?” He worries that parliament no longer attracts the brightest or the best. But so far as reform goes, he is resolute. Those who complain about outmoded practices “clearly don’t understand how the place works”. He likes nothing better than a vote in the division lobby, where anyone is free to nobble the secretary of state for this or that. How does he feel about the election, whenever it may be? Does he fear a rout? “I’ve always said that while governments come and go, parliament is a constant – and that’s fantastic. I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know how democracies work, and that’s a cause for celebration, not regret.”

William Wragg confessed:

I was in a depressive state and I asked myself: is this how I want to continue?

I found Wragg a bit of a bully, especially towards then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his final months. I am trying to square that with his mental health, which he has discussed openly in the House of Commons on occasion:

For Conservative MPs, the summer of 2022 was stormy – and it took its toll. “It was after the confidence votes in Boris Johnson,” says William Wragg. “I got back for the summer recess, and having come away from all that energy, tension and adrenaline, I just felt as if the ground from under me had opened up. I was in a depressive state, and I had to take some time out. It was then that I asked myself a blunt question: is this how I want to continue? Because it wasn’t going to be sustainable as a working life.” He waited. Best not to rush into anything. He told himself he might be able to push on. But it was no good. “We went through another tumultuous period. The party turned very introspective. The thought settled in my mind. I wanted more autonomy over my own life.”

Wragg has been open about his struggles with his mental health. But while this is the single most important reason for his decision to leave parliament, he doesn’t want to be defined by it. Does he think life as an MP is particularly hard for those prone to depression? “It’s hard on anybody, and it’s changed very much in the time I’ve been here.” Social media in particular has made life more difficult: “Maybe it’s one of the effects of the Brexit referendum, but the discourse doesn’t allow for any nuance.” The general public, he tells me, struggles to remember that MPs are human beings too: “A lady came to see me after I’d announced my decision, and she said: ‘You know, Mr Wragg, there’s no way I’m going to vote Conservative, and that’s how I’ve voted all my life. What have you got to say to that?’ When I said, ‘Well, it’s not just voters that can become disillusioned’, the look of surprise on her face…” Wragg is one of those who thinks long careers in politics may belong to the past. “No one is indispensable. But it’s a shame. There’s a lot of people with a lot more still to give who are leaving.”

As of February 12, 2024, Guido Fawkes estimated that 60 Conservatives will not be running for re-election.

One of them in Tracey Crouch, who first entered the Commons in 2010 and suffered with cancer during this Parliament. I fully empathise with her decision and, yes, she was an active participant in debates, showing up with a shaved head because of her cancer treatment. In any event, her seat of Chatham and Aylesford in Kent appears to be a safe seat for the Conservatives.

Sir Robert Neill, an absolute brainbox when it comes to the law, has served the Kent (outer London) constituency of Bromley & Chislehurst — soon to be Bromley and Biggin Hill — since 2006. He began his career as a local councillor 50 years ago, so he’s doing the right thing. The new constituency could well go to Labour. We can but see. I do not trust polls anymore.

Another proper Conservative, Colonel Bob Stewart, will be standing down from his Kent (another outer London) constituency Beckenham after many years. He has served his constituents well.

Sir Graham Brady, who heads the 1922 Committee, entered Parliament in 1997. He will also be standing down from his seat in Altrincham and Sale West:

I have decided to bring this fascinating and fulfilling chapter of my life to a close while I am young enough to pursue other opportunities and interests, so I will not be standing at the next election.

In physician Dr Kieran Mullan‘s case, after boundary changes, he was deselected in another constituency. Guido says:

Now that Mullan has nowhere to chicken run to he’s decided to fly the coop of Crewe and Nantwich, citing boundary changes and his personal life.

Mike Freer, who represents Margaret Thatcher’s former constituency in north London, is standing down after someone set his campaign office alight, allegedly regarding the Hamas-Israel conflict. Freer is not Jewish, incidentally, and says that the attack was the final straw with regard to his professional and personal life.

Sir James Duddridge, an MP since 2005, announced that he will be standing down from his seat in Rochford and Southend East:

I think I have done my time. Forgive me for moving on to do other things.

Steve Brine, who has represented Winchester (Hampshire) since 2010, will stand down, too, so that he can spend more time with his wife and children.

Dehenna Davison, who represents Bishop Auckland, was a surprise Red Wall win in 2019. I will have more on her in another post, but she will be standing down after one term. She has been plagued by unexpected physical health issues over the past five years.

Although that is just a small selection of Conservatives, their reasons are valid. I don’t know about Dr Mullan, but the others have pulled more than their weight not only on the backbenches but in ministerial or committee roles over the years.